Author Leanne Dyck writes: Welcome to my blog. Offered for your entertainment: short stories, book reviews, and the continuing saga of an adult with dyslexia (me) on an exciting author journey. I'm writing picture books for children, a YA novel and short stories for adults. Please help nurture this blog by visiting, commenting, subscribing and sharing.

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Sunday, March 13, 2016

Book review: Shimmer by Paula Weston (YA fantasy)

Title:Shimmer -- book 3 of the Rephaim series

Author: Paula Weston

Publisher: Tundra

Date published: 2016

Book blurb: Gaby thought her life couldn't be more complicated. She was wrong.

She's not the teenage backpacker she thought she was. She is one of the Rephaim, descended from fallen angels. The brother she thought she'd lost is alive. And now Rafa--sexy, infuriating Rafa--is being held, and hurt, by the demons who want to get to her.

Gaby needs the bitterly divided Rephaim to work together; or Rafa has no chance at all. It's a race against time. And it may already be too late.

It's a series...As this is book three and I'm new to the series, I was concerned that I won't be able to break in. But that wasn't a problem because there's a who's-who character list at the front of the book and the prologue offers a review of events. I read on and discovered a dense population of characters, a detailed world and a complex plot.So many names...Due to this dense population, the plot occasionally bogs down in a swamp of names.And you are?With so many characters it's difficult to develop individuals. Weston manages to maintain the individuality of her protagonist--Gabriella--but, unfortunately, many of her minor characters are largely indistinguishable.Wham bam pow...Weston is skilled at writing action...

Daisy takes off away from Jones, plants a foot on the second rope, spins and launches at him. He dives out of the way. She curls up and lands in a commando roll. (p. 55)

More, please...The suspenseful last chapter makes me yearn to read book four Right Now!Thank you, Paula Weston, for this entertaining read.

Next post (March 20th): Have you ever found a book that answered all your questions--even questions you didn't know you had? That's what happened to me when I read Writing Picture Books by Ann Whitford Paul. It was like taking a highly rated workshop from the comfort of my reading chair. I'll share my notes in my next post.

Sharing my author journey...

Re-writing my novel is going smoothly, now.

I was having trouble with internal dialogue--too many 'I thought's. All those 'I thought's were building a wall between the story and the reader. Shimmer and a few other books I've read recently were written in the present tense. I decided to give that a try. Problem solved. And I found writing in present tense surprisingly freeing.

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Favourite Quote...

'My dreams prosper and encourage the dreams of others. There is no competition, no devaluing of others to reach my goals. As I flower creatively, I give to others the gift of my example.' Blessings by Julia Cameron

' "Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overwhelmed with what comes back." '

All I know for certain is that this is how I want to spend my life--collaborating to the best of my ability with forces of inspiration that I can neither see, nor prove, nor command, nor understand Elizabeth Gilbert (Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear)